What Was the Real Reason for Anne Boleyn's Downfall?

What happened to Anne Boleyn? How did this once-beloved woman become the hated center of scandal that has gripped historians for centuries? These are questions that have plagued writers and devotees of the Tudor period for centuries. The fall of Anne Boleyn is a stunning one, with so many missing pieces that it leaves too much to the imagination.

Was she killed because she was a witch? Because she was the wrong religion? The true story becomes far more complicated when one takes a look at the reality of Anne Boleyn. Her power. Her connections. Her political acumen. All of that has to be considered in the scope of her destruction.

One quickly notices that there is little mention of Anne's ability to provide a male heir. That is because, when one looks deeply and earnestly into the events surrounding Anne's fall, it becomes clear that this figured little into the minds of either the king or his advisors. As a matter of fact, just days before Anne's arrest, the king made public assurances of his belief that Anne would soon bear him a son.

So, you will find little talk of that tale here. For those interested in that story, the books of Gregory and Mantel are available widely and freely.

This piece will focus not on minimizing Anne Boleyn through her reproductive ability, but instead seeking the truth behind this 488-year-old mystery. Why was Anne Boleyn truly taken down? Why was so deeply destroyed by the men who had once loved and championed her cause?

The reasons behind Anne's devastating collapse are far more complex than the birth of a son. When you take a more in-depth look at Anne and the world around her, the patterns become clear. Anne's story is the same as so many others. Threat to power. That is the truth behind this infamous queen's demise.

The mechanics behind Anne Boleyn's downfall?

Before one can understand the true reason for Anne's downfall, one must understand the complicated dynamics of the Henrician court at the time. Life was not easy as a courtier to Henry VIII. The world was a shifting one made of erratic political factions and an ever-changing sense of religious ideals. In this world, it was easy to get caught up and lost in the plots and the chaos of it all.

A game of factions

The English court, like all courts at the time, was a minefield of ever-evolving factions. Courtiers from grand families across the country converged upon the seat of power (wherever the king was residing) and formed alliances that changed daily along religious lines, socioeconomic lines, and the complex web of family and blood connections. This was the world that Anne was born into and it was one she was adept at maneuvering in.

At the height of her power, Anne Boleyn was the head of a very powerful progressive faction. This included her brother, Lord Rochford, who was a beloved philosopher, theologian, sportsman, and oralist. Her father and uncle, a powerful lord and a well-beloved diplomat, respectively. Some of the highest ranking members of the church, including Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, and a host of other "Lutheran" reformists from noble houses big and small (as well as those across the Channel in France).

Anne was good at earning the loyalty of those below her. Her women were dedicated to her, going so far as to follow her to the scaffold and protect her few remaining relics and memories for her daughter. The men around her fell at her feet, not so much because of her looks, but because of her mind and her singular devotion to religious reform in England.

Factions were the backbone of court life, and they were the basis by which policy was passed in England. As one faction gained the favor of the king, they became more powerful. Their members would receive properties, titles, and monies from the king. To lose that power as a faction worked in the opposite direction.

Those would could control factions in Henrician England could control the country, and even the church, itself. That was to have the power of God in hand, and could and had resulted in civil wars that bled the country for centuries at a time.

An ethereal force

It is truly impossible to look at the downfall of Anne Boleyn without looking at the religious forces at play during the time. This was no peaceful moment in English History. Far from it. The country was officially split from Rome and Henry was the head of the church in England. He fluctuated between progressive church policies that favored his egos and desires, and those of the Old Church - which led to extreme corruption and theft from the people of the parishes.

Henry's beliefs at this time were a clear tangle, a battle between his desires and the old established religious beliefs of his childhood. The chaos in England at the time is a reflection of Henry's own spiritual battles.

Rebellion in the north, commonly referred to as the "Pilgrimage of Grace" was fomenting through a series of riots like the ones that took place in Galtres Forest. The common people fought back against the dismantling of the abbeys and monasteries, being overseen by Lord Secretary Cromwell, a known associate of Anne Boleyn.

Cromwell, either at the behest of the king or through his own design, had turned the "reform" of the abbeys into a free-for-all auction. He enriched himself and the king first by taking spoils and bribes from desperate priests and deacons who needed their churches to stay alive. Those who did not bribe Cromwell and the king saw their churches broken up and sold to the highest bidder.

This wasn't just a game of cash. The souls of the common people were at play, as well as their well-being. These churches, abbeys, and monasteries had been centers of education and had been dedicated to feeding the poor and keeping a roof over the most unfortunate people in English society.

Anne was caught up in all of this. The ever-changing religious convictions of her husband. The strength of her own beliefs. A people who blamed her and a church who scapegoated her for their corruption and slipping power across a century. It was a perfect storm, one that eventually brought Anne to a crashing end.

The real reasons behind Anne's arrest and execution.

Knowing the realities of the court at the time, what precipitated Anne's erratic and stunning fall from grace and power? The truth goes far deeper than the birth of a son. To understand why Anne was destroyed in every way possible, one must look directly into the sun at what Anne was (and what she was not). Her motherhood was not what made this Boleyn dangerous. Her hot head and political determination were.

A series of confrontations

It is generally acknowledged that the machine behind Anne's downfall and eventual execution whirred into action sometime around the end of April 1536. The exact nature of its design, and the "why" of it all, remains relatively obscured, but there are a couple of big events that can be pointed to with relative certainty.

Two of these events are public quarrels that Anne had. One was with her husband, King Henry VIII, and another, later, quarrel was with Thomas Cromwell.

The first quarrel could be important because it's a marked change in Henry's attitude and behavior toward Anne (if true). According to the story, Anne had discovered Henry's most recent affair and lost her temper. She may have encountered the maid Jane Seymour sitting in the king's lap, after which she through a public fit and demanded that Jane be removed from court immediately.

If this story can be believed, the king stormed out of the room, turning his back on his queen, but not before shouting something along the lines of,

"You forget who has raised you up and made you, my lady, and I can unmake you again."

It's a chilling threat, especially in retrospect when one realizes that Anne was dead and mouldering in an arrow box perhaps days or weeks after this quarrel.

This confrontation was not Anne's last. Nor was it her most deadly. Sometime around the end of April, it's also believed that Anne had a falling out with Thomas Cromwell, now Lord Secretary and the man overseeing Henry's dissolution of the monasteries and abbeys in England.

Again, the specifics are vague here, but even Anne's detractors seem to agree.

Anne, an ardent reformer, had become aware of the corruption taking place in Cromwell's audit and "reformation" of the country's churches. Far from simply scouring out corruption and reforming the churches, Cromwell was destroying them all root and stem. Any church proven to have taken part in corrupt behavior was immediately decommissioned and its properties sold off to the highest bidder (usually a favorite courtier).

It is claimed that Anne was enraged when she discovered what Cromwell was doing. She believed the churches played an important role in communities, and she was right. Without them, people lost work, starved, went uneducated, and were forced out of their lifelong homes.

According to the story, Anne confronted Cromwell about his corruption and threatened him with his life. At the same time, Anne Boleyn is alleged to have told him she would "report him to the king" to which the haughty advisor laughed and told her that the whole thing was the king's idea.

Anne was arrested and executed a few weeks later.

Serious political power

What's so often lost in the story of Anne's fall is her raw political power. It had little to do with her sexuality, or her ability to birth a son. Anne was a political powerhouse in her own right. She came from an old family, with deep ties to London, Ireland, France, and in rebellion-prone Kent. The Boleyn family were no common sops. Thomas Boleyn was a favorite of Henry VII, Henry VII, Margaret of Austria, and the King of France. He was a prized diplomat and had been invaluable in delivering the famous pact that was signed between France and England at the Field d'Or event.

The Boleyn's were a family long experienced in politics, on and off the continent. More than that, they were a family with merchant ties and their coffers were long and deep. Henry himself borrowed money regularly from the family, taking on loan thousands of pounds at a time (usually coinciding with a title or grant of land).

Anne's wealthy family ties, combined with her anointment and the birth of an heir (the Princess Elizabeth) made her a political force to be reckoned with. Add in the reformist ties that linked her to some of the most powerful families in England, as well as the Low Countries, and you are looking at a woman who can figurehead an actual army that poses a threat to England.

This could, perhaps, be one of the greatest motivating factors for destroying Anne so completely through an erroneous smear campaign that destroyed the image of morality and rightness around her.

Anne Boleyn was not a meek and mild wife who would quietly accept abandonment in a damp house on the edge of a moor. Far from it. If Henry were to openly rid himself of his wife, she would fight, and those around her would fight for the cause of Queen Anne and Princess Elizabeth too.

It's important keep in mind, too, that Anne was not the only adept politician in her family. Her father was a skilled diplomat, but her brother, the Lord of Rochford was the real power to be reckoned with. Handsome, intelligent, well-educated, and a great orator, he was said to have the charm and the mind to sway any heart. Surely a man other men would rally behind if the moment came to war.

Awareness of the law

One thing that becomes immediately clear when digging into Anne's story is how different she was from other queens of the age. Where Katherine was quiet and imperious, Anne was loud and passionate. She wasn't all fire and flash, either. Anne Boleyn, from sources both flattering and detracting, was widely acknowledged as an intelligent woman who know more than your average wife, queen, or mother in Tudor England.

That holds true. Anne wasn't just politically astute enough to form factions and alliances...she was well educated.

Thanks to Thomas Boleyn's progressive religious and social views, Anne spent more than a decade living abroad, where she served and was taught in the courts of some of Europe's greatest women. First, in the home of Margaret of Austria, she learned the courtly skills of a girl. Next, in France, while serving Queen Claude, she was exposed to the Renaissance and great minds like Leonardo da Vinci.

This resulted in a woman who could speak no less than 4 or 5 languages, as well as debate politics, history, and theology. Anne Boleyn also wrote her own music, and played multiple instruments "passing well". She even sang and was known to have a voice that was often favored by Queen Katherine when Anne was still in her service.

Anne read books, again in multiple languages including Greek and Latin, and she was even said to be able to do arithmetic (a rare thing in Tudor England for women). All of this adds up to a woman with awareness. A woman who knows how the world works, and who knows her place within it. We see that in Anne's rise. Far from letting herself be a catspaw, she assured that Henry anointed her, making her an undeniable queen and spiritual leader in her own right.

There can be little doubt that Anne Boleyn knew her rights as a queen under the law. She would also know the rights of her daughter, Princess Elizabeth. It's undeniable that the Boleyns would have led a stand in the name of their princess if she were cast aside for the children of another wife in the line of inheritance. Unlike Kathrine, Anne would not go quietly into that good night. She needed to be destroyed so that no one would pick up the mantle in her name and reignite a centuries-long civil war (ie The Wars of the Roses).

The power of propaganda

The last real piece of the puzzle when looking at Anne's fall can be seen in the public opinion of her. While the public hate for Anne has generally been exaggerated by her detractors over the centuries, there was a wide dislike of her at the time of her fall. It's understandable. Anne served as a scapegoat for the sweeping changes that were taking England by storm. She was blamed for the desecration of the churches, and she was blamed for Henry's split with Rome.

On one level, it was nothing new. Anne had been smeared by her enemies by all corners for years. What's important, however, is that by the time of her fall, she was being smeared by her "friends" as well, especially Thomas Cromwell the Lord Secretary, and the King.

Both allowed Anne to take the fall for their disastrous destruction of the abbeys and monasteries. By 1536 Anne was hated and commonly referred to as "The Concubine" by her enemies and detractors who were fueled and funded by the Catholic Church in Rome. Pamphlets were handed out about Anne, and crude songs were sung about her in taverns.

This shaped the tides of favor against Anne at court and outside of court, which made it hard for Henry to maneuver in mainland Europe. Anne Boleyn, a shamed woman named a harlot for stealing another woman's rightful spot, became an obstacle to Henry's ability to form alliances, which were even more necessary after his split with Rome.

The princes of Europe didn't want to associate with Henry after his divorce. His division from Rome and denial of the Pope were seen as blasphemous by the devout nations of Spain and France. His divorce from Katherine of Aragon, a Spanish princess, had insulted the King of Spain who was Katherine's nephew. The taint of Henry's excommunication in Rome was strong. France stayed away and even snubbed Anne on the one occasion she visited Calais as queen.

For Henry to form the alliances he needed to keep his nation on top of the European power structure, Anne had to be removed. Pushing her to the side would not do for a man so married to a woman he had (allegedly) moved heaven and earth for. Anne had to go...whether she bore Henry a son or not.

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The realities of Anne Boleyn's rise and fall have been muddied and obscured by the rapid flow of time. Every year, we move another step away from this infamous hatQueen of England and closer to the shade of memory and what was. It's a sad loss. When we take a more honest look at Anne's story, there is much more to learn, not least of which is the perils of power and the dangers of being a woman who wields that power comfortably.

Anne was not destroyed because of the disasters in the birthed.

Looking back at the astute politician that she was, it could be argued quite the opposite. Perhaps it is Anne's ability to bear a son that got her struck down so quickly. Maybe King Henry, alienated by his marriage to the die-hard progressive, needed to strike her down before he was stuck with her and a Boleyn heir forever.

Who can say?

What can be said is that Anne Boleyn, like all women of conviction who speak truth to power, was a threat. She was a threat to Henry and the status quo. She was a threat to those who wanted to plunder and crush the smallest and most powerless people of England underfoot.

Anne Boleyn was a threat to the same type of men that run our world today, and that was the real danger that required a smiting of not only her body but her legacy too. One single truth remains ever-present and ever-powerful beyond it all, however.

The truth will always rise to the top. We are seeing that now in the brave new retellings of Queen Anne Boleyn's story.

© E.B. Johnson 2024

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References:

• Ives, E. (2005a). The life and death of Anne Boleyn : 'the most happy'. Malden, Ma: Blackwell Publishing.
• Morris, S. and Grueninger, N. (2013a). In the Footsteps of Anne Boleyn. Amberley Publishing Limited.
• Norton, E. (2017a). Lives Of Tudor Women. Head of Zeus.